Suffolk Wildlife Spring/Summer 2018

Suffolk

Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

CONTENTS

21

JACKIE MORRIS

STEVE AYLWARD

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9

JAMIE HALL

KATH AGGISS

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CONSERVATION NEWS

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The Lost Words

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Reserves round-up

Hear about our campaign to spread seeds of wildness into every Suffolk primary school.

The latest news from the Trust's reserves.

WILDLIFE & PEOPLE

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An eye for the wild

From Suffolk to Africa, photographer

Jamie Hall explains how techniques

mastered in his back garden helped

him get closer to lions, leopards and elephants.

25 A wild future

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

LIVING LANDSCAPES

21 Flutter by

Our guide to the best places to go on a Suffolk butterfly safari.

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JOHN BAKER

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SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

The Trust's Head of Conservation looks back on the past 30 years and sets out a vision for a wilder Suffolk.

A wild and watery web

Water is a the heart of conservation in Suffolk. We look at the challenges and the success stories.

25 Rewilding Black Bourn Valley

The changes at our Black Bourn Valley reserve have triggered a complete re-evaluation of how the land will be managed for wildlife.

Author Hugh Warwick is urging people to join the linear revolution.

Find out how you can make lines work for wildlife.

30 Linescapes

UK NEWS

28 An Act for nature

The Wildlife Trusts are calling for an Environment Act.

DIRECTORY

32 Advertising directory

JOHN FERGUSON

Welcome

Shake it off: how Suffolk Wildlife Trust is helping to improve our rivers.

Suffolk

Wildlife News from Suffolk Wildlife Trust

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

On the cover Fox Jamie Hall

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

For the last three years Suffolk Wildlife Trust has been immersed in plans to create a 1,000 acre nature reserve in the Broads National Park. Our ambition is to create a nature reserve alongside Lowestoft by expanding Carlton Marshes to attract some of the UK’s rarest species to breed. This huge, new nature reserve will offer unparalleled opportunities for visitors to experience and be inspired by nature.

Now, thanks to a grant offer of £4.1 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), these aspirations Julian Roughton can finally come to fruition. It is one of the most Chief Executive exciting points in the Trust’s history and reflects our determination to make Suffolk a better place for wildlife and people.

Many people and organisations have come behind our vision and helped make this possible. Our £1million match fundraising appeal has now reached £900,000. It is an unprecedented and generous sum. We have received almost 4000 donations from members, local people and businesses and Sir David Attenborough’s support gave our fundraising national profile.

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership’s contribution of £250,000 reflects their appreciation of the value of the natural environment to the economies of Norfolk and Suffolk. Charitable trusts, large and small, have been unstinting in their support. Not least the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation which, through its largest land purchase loan ever, ensured the land was not sold on the open market.

Finally our passionate staff and volunteers have shown what is possible when more land is set-aside for nature. Fields at Carlton Marshes purchased just five years ago are now rich in breeding, wintering and passage birds thanks to imaginative habitat creation. It has revealed what we had suspected - Carlton Marshes lies underneath an important flyway and birds will come if suitable habitat is created. This potential for wildlife has driven us throughout.

For years we dreamt of what might be possible when we looked over these vast arable fields alongside the River Waveney. We are tantalisingly close to reaching our fundraising target. If you can, please help us with this final push.

Some members have asked about the biodegradable plastic magazine wrapping.

The plastic is made from naptha, a by-product of oil refining, which would otherwise be ‘flared off’ at the refinery. It is a low density polythelene (LDPE) with a degradant additive. This causes the plastic to fragment, enabling bacteria and fungi to consume the carbon and hydrogen, leaving only water, nonharmful trace elements of CO2 and humus, with no residual fragments of petropolymers and no methane production.

We have posted an information sheet on our website with more details and will of course continue to keep our packing under review.

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Living Landscapes Living Gardens Living Seas

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE SUFFOLK WILDLIFE MAGAZINE is published by Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House, Ashbocking IP6 9JY 01473 890089 info@suffolkwildlifetrust.org suffolkwildlifetrust.org EDITOR Matt Gaw DESIGN Clare Sheehan ADVERTISING Today Magazines, Framlingham 01728 622030 PRINTING Five Castles Press, Ipswich

Registered charity no 262777

Suffolk Wildlife Trust is a registered charity no 262777 and a company limited by guarantee no 695346 PATRON Lord Tollemache PRESIDENT William Kendall VICE PRESIDENTS David Barker MBE, Sir Kenneth Carlisle, Lord Deben, Dawn Girling, Peter Wilson TRUSTEES Ian Brown (Chairman), Nigel Farthing (Vice Chairman & Hon Secretary), James Alexander (Treasurer), David Alborough, John Cousins, Rachel Eburne, Denise Goldsmith, Pip Goodwin, Peter Holborn, Simon Roberts, Anna Saltmarsh.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Suffolk Wildlife Trust benefits from the most incredible support, with many members’ commitment stretching over decades.

Please tell our Membership Manager, Sam Grange, if your circumstances change, so we can keep your membership record up-to-date, for example if your family has grown out of the children’s magazine.

If you would like to change how we contact you, or would rather receive your magazine in a digital format please let us know.

Sam Grange our Membership Manager is happy to help with any questions about your membership.

01473 890089 Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram SUFFOLK WILDLIFE TRUST is one of a national network of Wildlife Trusts dedicated to safeguarding the future of wildlife for the benefit of all.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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CONSERVATION NEWS

Rewilding the Child Helping to conjure up nature in the classroom.

JAY ARMSTRONG

S

ROSAMUND MACFARLANE

uffolk Wildlife Trust has launched a campaign to get a copy of The Lost Words: A Spell Book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris into every primary school in the county. The move, which will see 250 schools receive a very special edition of the book, is part of the Trust’s vision to inspire interest in the natural world and encourage children to make nature part of their everyday life.

The Lost Words was created to

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celebrate and revive once-common “natural” words – from acorn and wren, to conker and dandelion – excised from the Oxford Junior Dictionary.

The book has been described as a "cultural phenomenon" by The Guardian, for the speed with which it and its ideas have taken root in classrooms and homes across Britain since its publication in October.

With acrostic spell-poems designed to be read aloud and hand-painted illustration, the book captures the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all ages.

The Trust is asking its supporters and members of the public to donate £10 to buy a book for a Suffolk school.

Each book will include an exclusive,

previously unpublished, spell by Robert Macfarlane and a beautiful new illustration by Jackie Morris.

Every child will also receive a special book mark, with the exclusive spell and illustration.

Sara Holman, the Trust's Learning Manager, said: “By gifting these beautiful books to Suffolk’s primary schools, we want to bring wildness into the classroom and encourage even more young people to make nature – and the wonders that it holds – part of their everyday life.”

The campaign, as well as supplying schools with books, will include a programme of Suffolk Wildlife Trust activities (including the chance for children to write their own

CLOSER TO NATURE IN IPSWICH Over the past three years, the Trust has inspired and informed the next generation of naturalists in Ipswich through the Closer to Nature initiative, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Recognising the need to provide high-quality outdoor learning experiences for young people in Ipswich, Closer to Nature used the town’s historic parks and green spaces as a

wild skills courses and practical conservation opportunities. In addition, over 3,500 young people and over 2,000 adults attended family events in the parks.

The impact on young people of engaging with Closer to Nature is significant.

Lucy Shepherd, the Trust’s Education Ranger delivering Closer to Nature in Ipswich, explains, “ “Young people who participated in wild skills sessions and practical conservation opportunities were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the difference Closer to Nature has made to them: enabling them to develop their natural history knowledge alongside expert naturalists; learn practical conservation skills and make new friends. In some cases, it has even inspired their choice of further study or career.”

With funding pledged by local private benefactors to support a full-time Wild Learning Officer in Ipswich, the Trust can build on the success of the Closer to Nature project and to continue to develop learning activities in the town, thus ensuring a lasting legacy for Closer to Nature.

The impact on young people of engaging with Closer to Nature is significant

SCHOOLS IN SUFFOLK WILL RECEIVE A BOOK

spell-poems) to cultivate their love of nature far beyond the book’s pages.

Jackie Morris, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to Suffolk Wildlife Trust for joining with us to help plant these seeds of books. And what a wonderful way to celebrate the work of the wildlife trust in its support of the hush-winged barn owl than to see the release of this barn owl spell into the wild, the first written

by Rob since the completion of The Lost Words.”

Robert Macfarlane said he was “thrilled” at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s project to help “bring the language and knowledge of nearby nature back into the stories and vocabularies of the county's children.”

FIND OUT MORE Please contact ipswich.education@ suffolkwildlifetrust.org

JOHN FERGUSON

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base to reawaken young people’s interest in natural history and to provide opportunities for young people aged eight to 16 years to gain skills in species identification and recording, developing their expertise through a programme of wildlife skills courses and practical conservation activities for teenagers. Over three years, Closer to Nature enabled over 5,500 young people to build their knowledge and skills in natural history through learning programmes for schools and youth groups,

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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CONSERVATION NEWS COMMON LIZARD WATER VIOLET

KNETTISHALL TRANSFORMED

PARTNERSHIP IN THE FENS

HIDE FOR HEN

A new hide will be built at the river wall at Hen Reedbeds to provide a panoramic view of the reserve. Visitors will soon be able to look out at feeding waders on the estuary on one side, or look out over the bittern-stalked pools of the reedbeds. The hide has been made possible through the generous support from Adnams and Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB Sustainable Development Fund.

DAVID KJAER

BITTERN

MIKE LANE ALAMY STOCK IMAGES

STEVE AYLWARD

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s partnership with the Little Ouse Headwaters Project (LOHP) at Thelnetham Fen is now set to enter its fourth year.

Volunteers from the charity, which recently purchased New Fen next to the Trust’s Middle Fen, have helped to mow the reserve’s fen meadow for the last three summers. They have taken some of the green hay to scatter onto their neighbouring fens in the hope of increasing the spread of rare native fen flora.

The last pieces of the restoration jigsaw at Knettishall Heath reserve are now falling into place – with the final stage of tree-felling taking place over winter.

Contractors using heavy machinerycleared belts and blocks of young pine and birch that have grown up around the heathland edges, helping to create pockets of heath and sunlit glades amongst the woodland. The next step of the restoration this year will see some of these felled areas become bare ground creation plots, mimicking the role rabbits would play as they dig into the sandy soil, turning over the seed bank and creating patchy ground to support Breckland plants, invertebrates, reptiles and ground-nesting birds. The work is the last part of a five-year project funded

by WREN and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

A new Wild Classroom, funded by Tesco’s Bags of Help project, has also now been installed at Knettishall Heath.

RESERVES ROUND-UP SNIPE

Work to create space for birds to feed and breed has been created at Snape Marshes.

The scrape, a shallow pool that includes two islands and connects a number of drainage channels, means more water and, crucially, more invertebrate-rich mud will gather on the reserve for wading birds. Suffolk Coastal Reserves Assistant Sam Hanks, who created the scrape said the area provides potential breeding sites for redshank and lapwing, while also benefitting wintering snipe.

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ALAMY STOCK IMAGES

SNAPE'S FIRST SCRAPE

AWARD WINNING

GREAT WHITE EGRET

BITTERNS AND MURMURATIONS

BLICKWINKEL ALAMY

Redgrave & Lopham Fen has continued to be an important site for birds over the winter, with everything from bittern, great white egret, large teal flocks and overwintering snipe seen on the reserve. Starlings were also around in impressive numbers, with up to 10,000 murmurating before arrowing down into the reeds to roost.

BLICKWINKEL ALAMY

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has secured the national Dame Mary Smieton Award following a long-term study into the impacts of deer browsing on woodland birds and ash dieback.

The study, led by Professor Rob Fuller (ex BTO) and the Trust’s Head of Conservation Dorothy Casey, focussed on trees and vegetation in Bradfield Woods and Arger Fen. The research, which included experimental work on deer impact and detailed monitoring of ash dieback and its implications for conservation are of national significance.

PINK-FOOTED GEESE

BIRD HAVEN AT TRIMLEY

Seven species of geese have been seen at Trimley Marshes this winter, grazing the short grassland on the marshes and lagoon fringes. Greylag geese peaked at 730 birds (a five year high) while dark bellied brent geese, barnacle geese, bean geese, whitefronted geese and Canada were also present.

A record number of pink-footed geese were also spotted on the reserve in January, with a total of 33 birds seen feeding.

Roosting oystercatchers (normally around high Spring tides) peaked at 881 birds, the highest count for many years, while more than 1,850 lapwing overwintered at Trimley.

To help visitors enjoy Trimley's wonderful bird life, we have installed new information panels in the hides, funded by Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB Sustainable Development Fund.

FRANS LEMMENS ALAMY STOCK IMAGES

DEBORAH VASS

POSTCARD FOR THE BROADS

One hundred pieces of original art work will be auctioned off to raise money for the Trust’s exciting vision for a 1,000 acre nature reserve in the Broads.

Postcards designed by a wide selection of artists, including Deborah Vass, Nick Butterworth and Buzz Mitchell will go under the hammer in August.

AUCTION SAVE THE DATE

Wednesday 15th August, 6pm at Ivy House Country Hotel, Carlton Colville. £10 a head includes cheese & wine and bidding paddle.

Raffle & refreshments.

To book email info@ ivyhousecountry hotel.co.uk or phone 01502 501353

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CONSERVATION NEWS

PICTURES FROM OUR RESERVES

Here are just some of the amazing wildlife scenes that you have shared with us over the past few months.

Dusk at Oulton Marshes by Paul Boyce.

LEFT Otters at

Lackford Lakes

by Tony and Sandy Fox.

RIGHT Kestrel at

Oulton Marshes

by Ricky Cone.

Barn owl at Carlton Marshes

by Richard Tomsett.

We are grateful to the families of the following friends of the Trust who have recently remembered us in their Will or through an In memoriam donation.

Brian Bignall Lee Brosan David Brow Tony & Marian Coles Stuart Collis

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David Dewick Diane Farrow Benjamin Hudson Noel King June Kleiser Frances Murdoch Keith Richer Tim Royal Gillian Swain Bernard Tickner Keith Turner Mary Usherwood John Whitcombe

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

AGM SAVE THE DATE

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s 57th AGM and Conservation Day will be held on Saturday 20 October 2018.

For booking details and to register your interest email sam.clanford@ suffolkwildlifetrust.org

HEDGEHOG WORKSHOPS This summer our Hedgehog Officer Ali North is hosting a series of adult workshops for people to learn more about the ecology and habits of the hedgehog. Ranging from torchlight tours, to hedgehog gardening and allotment workshops, each session provides insights into the life of this secretive creature.

TO BOOK Workshops are free, but spaces are limited, so book your space at suffolkwildlifetrust.org

JOHN FERGUSON

Thank you

WILDLIFE & PEOPLE

Wild AN EYE FOR THE

Photographer Jamie Hall has created a name for himself by capturing images of wildlife from a unique perspective. He tells Matt Gaw how techniques mastered in his Suffolk back garden helped him to understand and get closer to lions, leopards and elephants.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

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WILDLIFE & PEOPLE

I know that now I will be prey 24 hours a day, even just walking around in daylight. If that lioness feels threatened, or thinks ‘I’ve got seven cubs, you’ll do’, I’m easy prey

J

amie Hall is worried. For six months he has been working in the Chyulu Hills, some 150km east of the Kenya Rift. In a landscape dominated by extinct, wooded volcanoes, old lava flows and grassland, Jamie has been living a solitary existence tracking and photographing big cats. Now just a week before he is to return to his isolated hut on the edges of territory controlled by the Maasai, he has been told the pride of lions he has been photographing has expanded. Seven new cubs have been born. When he returns, he fears the rules will have changed. The safety previously awarded by the hours of sunlight will have evaporated.

“They’ll definitely be more protective. I know that now I will be prey 24 hours a day, even just walking around in daylight. If that lioness feels threatened, or thinks ‘I’ve got seven cubs, you’ll do’, I’m easy prey.

She wouldn’t have to work up a sweat in the heat for me.”

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LEFT Lion cubs drinking at the watering hole in Chyulu Hills, 150km east of the Kenya Rift.

BELOW A giraffe lowers itself to drink.

I started thinking the only way I would stand out is by doing something different

Following a split from a girlfriend in 2010 he moved back in with his mum and used her camera to try and take pictures of adders in Hoe Rough and Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk. His passion built, and Jamie sold his fishing gear to buy his own camera and develop a portfolio.

“One of the things that struck me right from the beginning,” says Jamie, “was that when I was posting pictures on Flickr and Facebook they weren’t really any different from what everyone else was doing.

Everyone was doing the same subjects and getting the same picture.

“I would have someone sitting next to me in a hide photographing a sparrowhawk and it would be a race to see who could get it online first. I realised the only way I would stand out is by doing something different.”

RUNNING WITH FOXES

SUFFOLK ROOTS For Jamie, the project in Kenya is his biggest yet, a rare chance to photograph some of the world’s most spectacular animals in their natural environment. But he insists although the species are bigger, more able to maim and maul, the principles he learnt studying wildlife in Suffolk still hold true.

“I think when you’re watching animals you build up a picture, you start to recognise their routine. While it’s not as regular as clockwork, whether it’s a fox, an owl, an elephant or a lion, they tend to do similar things every day. It’s all about territories, food, water and breeding.”

Jamie, who has had a lifelong fascination with wildlife, came to photography relatively recently.

BOTTOM LEFT

Jamie mastered taking photographs of wildlife at night by following groups of urban foxes.

Jamie’s mind soon turned to foxes and he became obsessed with trying to photograph them at night – at first hanging around cemeteries, leaning out of his car window with a torch and a camera. He laughs at the memory.

“I wasn’t getting anywhere fast and then I managed to get hold of some flash guns. City foxes are used to things like car headlights and streetlights, so I was pretty sure it wouldn't be a problem. Over time my portfolio of foxes gradually got bigger and I took photos of foxes everywhere, from London and Norwich to rural foxes in Captain’s Wood.

“I guess that was my first real project, my first love” he adds. “It also meant I could still do my day job and wasn’t just restricted to weekends. I could go out at night time because that’s when foxes were active.

While everyone else was in bed or watching TV I would be outside waiting for the foxes to show.”

It was while returning from photographing foxes in London in the small hours of the morning that Jamie saw a barn owl sitting on a fence post in his garden. His

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WILDLIFE & PEOPLE wife said she thought the owl was a regular visitor so the next night he sat out in his car and waited with a remote control on his camera.

“I was a little bit concerned about using even a low-powered flash gun and the first time I was really nervous,” he explains. “But when I tested it the owl just sat there, unconcerned, still looking down into the grass. It was a bit of eureka moment.”

The results over the next few weeks were nothing short of stunning: close-up images of barn owls within feet of Jamie’s back door, in flight and feeding, their markings powder-white, graphite and gold.

PREY’S EYE VIEW Some of Jamie’s favourite images are of owls, both of the barn owls and the little owls that live within the skin of an old barn near his Suffolk home.

“I knew the little owls were really active in the day because they had young. I watched them for some time and when I figured out their movements I decided to put a camera between two fence posts they were using as a look out. I wanted to get a shot from the prey’s perspective. But what I hadn’t considered was the bird would always be just flying from A to B. As the bird moved I was frantically clicking away on my

I think when you’re watching animals you build up a picture. Whether it’s a fox, an owl, an elephant or a lion, they tend to do similar things every day.

It’s all about territories, food, water and breeding

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION Jamie has been a judge of Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s annual photography competition for the last three years. This year’s competition is now open for entries. For more information visit suffolkwildlifetrust.org

Photography COMPETiTiON

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remote control in the hide. But as the camera clicked the owl hovered and looked down into the camera. At one point it actually dropped down into the grass and landed on the lens. Then it shot up in the air and went back to the post. It was a complete an utter fluke that it stalled above the camera and lowered itself down but I got the shot I wanted. It was far greater than anything I expected” (See page 9).

Although the techniques and field craft Jamie honed in Suffolk have been invaluable during his time in Africa, using remotely controlled cameras has proved tricky, due to the need to be in the safety of his hut before dusk falls. But even placing camera traps is not without its risks.

“There was one time when I found a tree that had some scratch marks on and it looked fairly fresh, I thought perhaps a leopard had been using it. I started

MATT GAW is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Media Manager and Editor of Suffolk Wildlife. He is a freelance writer.

setting up a camera trap at the base of the tree when something caught my eye. I turned around to see a male lion stepping out of the bush about 20ft way.

“I kept quiet and went up the tree incredibly slowly and hoped he didn’t follow. Not once did he turn and look at me, even when he was lying underneath me preening. He knew I was there though. He must have done.”

Jamie sat above the lion for an hour and a half and stayed in the tree for another hour after it left, listening to the alarm cries of birds and monkeys as it walked through the forest. He adds, “It was a close one. It was also only about an hour to darkness and I’m sure I wouldn’t have survived until morning if I had stayed up in that tree.

“It was a strange experience. I just wish I’d had my camera in my hand!” n

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LIVING LANDSCAPES

WILD AND WATERY WEB

A

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With concerns raised about the state of the nation’s rivers, John Grant talks to those working to improve the health of Suffolk’s waterways about the challenges and the success.

P

enny Hemphill relives the “shiver down the spine moment” nearly six years ago when she first heard the tinkling notes of moving, warbling water that signified the Little Ouse river’s revitalised flow through Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Knettishall Heath nature reserve. The quickening cadence of her words, the sparkle in her eyes and the clarity of her recall seem to match and mirror the very characteristics of the water that had at last been unshackled from stultifying, suffocating stillness.

THE FIRST RESTORATION

ALAMY

For Penny, the Trust’s Water for Wildlife officer, that first project six years ago is still a source of inspiration.

And, at a time when there is widespread concern for the health of many of the UK’s rivers and streams – with the invertebrate charity Buglife naming The River Waveney as the most heavily polluted with neonicotinoid pesticides – it is also a reminder. Suffolk’s watercourses, in fact, the world’s watercourses, are essential lifesupport systems that, when healthy, positively bristle with biodiversity. Above, on and in these aquatic arteries, can be found an interconnected web of wildlife, from the tiniest invertebrate organisms to dashing jewel-backed kingfishers and sleek and sinuous otters.

SUFFOLK SUFFOLK WILDLIFE WILDLIFE 15 15

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has built up considerable expertise in river restoration and enhancement since the start of that pioneering project on an 800-metre stretch of the Little Ouse, with Penny playing a key role.

“At the start, in 2012, you’d hardly know there was a river there at all,” she says, “You could barely see any water. We aimed to re-naturalise the river, so we sped up the flow by creating features like riffles, berms (a terrace-like structure) and gravels.

“The results have been extraordinary,’ she adds, “I will never forget standing on the river bank there one day soon after we started. I was with Nigel Holmes (a highly acclaimed freelance ecologist and one of the UK’s foremost river restoration experts) and we could actually hear the water flowing. It was so thrilling.

And then a kingfisher swooped down and then down came some swallows. It was one of the biggest highs.

It wasn’t a multi-million pound project it was just a £10,000 project and yet it was so exciting.”

PAUL COLLEY ALAMY

LIVING LANDSCAPES

WORKING WITH OTHERS On subsequent return visits, Penny has been impressed with the restoration results. “The water is clear, you can see the gravel and there’s no build-up of silt at all.

Brown trout have been seen there and that is a key species to find. This river has been used as an example to show landowners and estate managers what can be done and how successful the outcome can be.”

Brown trout depend on clean gravel to spawn.

More restorations have since taken place, the Trust working closely with many partners and landowners.

Penny says an “exciting” project is currently under way at the Trust’s Black Bourn Valley nature reserve (see page 18) where the river’s former channel has been restored and the height of a bund reduced to allow water to move back onto the river’s floodplain, creating rich new wildlife habitat.

“I feel I am now becoming more of an enabler for river restoration projects,” says Penny. “I have got to know so many people involved with rivers and if I don’t know who owns a river bank I can usually find out. It’s all about partnership working.

“Rivers are the backbone of the county and the backbone of our landscape. They have a timeless quality about them. They have been affected by Man over the years, and not always for the good, but now we can hope to put the adverse effects right and we can show that the work we do can help species recovery.”

GOING WITH THE FLOW A key component of the Trust’s river restoration projects is about increasing water flow. In a largely flat landscape, the county’s watercourses are relatively slow-moving, lacking the velocity that moves sediments and generally keeps gravel on the bed clean.

A great champion of “going with the flow” in a Suffolk river context is the county’s freshwater invertebrate recorder Adrian Chalkley. He said: “The main problem on many of our rivers is increased sediment loads on the river beds. Invertebrate species have various

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tolerances – some are susceptible to some types of pollution, others are susceptible to other types, and the most sensitive ones tend to be the ones that are rarer - but the main problem is those increased sedimentation loads on river beds.”

In times of high rainfall, farmers sometimes do not take account of how much fine surface soil can run off into a watercourse, says Adrian.

“Even things like the direction of ploughing can lead to sediments being led into watercourses.

Sediments can enter gravels, where invertebrates take refuge in times of drought, and it gets compacted and the invertebrates cannot use them so much. They can affect oxygen levels. In some species, gills are impacted by fine sediment particles, affecting their ability to use oxygen, and some spin webs under water to trap food particles and prey items and these webs can be impacted by sediment too.

Adrian explains that sediments can contain various types of pollution and can slow the flow of the water, effectively preventing the watercourse from cleaning itself. He adds,“The average pond, if it’s not connected

Watercourses are essential life-support systems that, in the healthiest waters, positively bristle with biodiversity

The Little Ouse project was funded by the Environment Agency through the European Water Framework Directive.

The kingfisher returns with the river's flow.

ANDY ROUSE NATURPL.COM

Rivers are the backbone of the county and the backbone of our landscape

JACK PERKS ALAMY

NEON ICOT INOID ARE A CL S A SS NEUR O-AC OF TIV INS CHEM ECTICIDE E S ICAL L TO N Y SIMILA ICOT R INE

THE NEONICOTINOID PROBLEM The health of Britain’s rivers came into the national spotlight in 2017 thanks to a report by the invertebrate conservation charity Buglife on neonicotinoid pollution – and the River Waveney gained the unwanted top-spot in a league table of contamination levels.

MATTHEW ROBERTS

NEONIC POLLUTION

The watercourse that defines much of Suffolk’s northern county boundary was identified by Buglife as having “disgraceful” neonic pollution in the report which was based on the results of monitoring in a pilot scheme carried out in 2016 by the Environment Agency as part of Britain’s EU Water Framework Directive responsibilities.

ACQUATIC INSECTS

to a river, is generally pretty clean, particularly those in woods. But rivers are often high in nitrates and possibly phosphates as well, even where you don’t expect them to be, even the beautiful-looking streams with interesting invertebrate species. They can be without a lot of sedimentation and have some gravels, but they can still be high in nitrates from agriculture.

The clearer the water, the more likely it is to have the rarer forms of invertebrate life.”

Much of the controversy surrounding neonics had previously centred on their impacts on pollinating insects.

Use of the chemicals on flowering crops is banned under an EU moratorium – although Suffolk was in 2015 one of four counties in which exemption was temporarily lifted to enable application on oil seed rape.

But Buglife has warned that aquatic invertebrates are “just as vulnerable” to neonics as pollinating species.

WATER QUICK TO REWILD

MONITORING

Restorations such as those carried out by the Trust can have “almost immediate” beneficial effects. At the Little Ouse, the restored stretch quickly became saturated with bullhead fry – an indicator of oxygenrich waters. Many other projects, currently in their infancy, are still being monitored to get a better understanding of their impact.

Siltation, neonics, phosphates, nitrates, a throwaway society’s litter – the list of potential pollutants in our watercourses seems almost endless.

Much has been done to combat such problems, with restorations by the Trust and its ranks of willing partners playing a key and continuing role. But there is no place for complacency – there’s far too much at stake and there’s still plenty of work to be done. n

Pilot scheme monitoring took place at 16 sites in England, four in Scotland, three in Wales and three in Northern Ireland, testing for Imidacloprid, Clothianidin, Thiamethoxam, Acetamiprid and Thiacloprid. The Waveney, already identified by the Environment Agency as a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone, was the worst polluted of any of the rivers in which monitoring took place, with “acute harm level” exceeded for a whole month.

Clothianidin and Thiamethoxam were found in the river and Buglife said their origin was likely to have

been sugar beet fields – neonics being widely used on UK beet, cereal and potato crops, with East Anglia being the region in which their use is at its highest level.

RIVER WAVENEY

Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s chief executive, Julian Roughton said he feared the neonic pollution of the River Waveney might be the “tip of the iceberg”, with other rivers in Suffolk also likely to be suffering from similar contamination. Buglife’s report was a “shock even to those highlighting concerns about neonicotinoids,” he added. “The River Waveney is bordered by wetlands of international importance from its source – Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Redgrave & Lopham Fen – to the watery landscape of the Broads National Park. The revelation that this river carries levels of neonicotinoids well in excess of ‘acute pollution’ is deeply troubling.”

GOVERNMENT CHANGES

As recently as 2013 the UK Government opposed the EU’s moratorium on neonic use on flowering crops – but a major change in attitude was signalled late last year

by Environment Secretary Michael Gove. He announced the Government would support the moratorium and go even further if this was supported by scientific evidence. There is mounting pressure for such a move – and the UK’s Expert Committee on Pesticides met in March 2018 to assess the evidence and provide guidance to Government.

JOHN GRANT worked as the environment correspondent for the East Anglian Daily Times and the honorary president of Suffolk Ornithologist's Group.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

17

LIVING LANDSCAPES

A flock of linnets, otherwise known as a parcel.

18

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

Rewilding Black Bourn Valley

G

rove Farm is a typical Suffolk clayland arable farm with lovely features such as unimproved riverside meadows, hedges and ponds – it is a small piece of ancient Suffolk countryside. The Trust has continued to farm the arable fields alongside restoring ponds, planting hedges and establishing a network of wild bird cover and pollen and nectar mixes.

In the 1990s small areas were taken out of arable farming altogether. A narrow field was difficult to farm so was put into set-aside and over the years became increasingly ‘rough’ and scrubby. This little area hinted at a potential different future for the farm as it became increasingly valuable for wildlife.

Yellowhammers and whitethroats nested in the scrub, grassy areas were colonised by bee orchid and pyramidal orchid, dragonflies flourished in the ponds and countless butterflies benefitted from the rough grassland and wildflowers. It was, quite simply, buzzing with wildlife.

EXPANSION

The Black Bourn Valley reserve has all the ingredients to create a wildlife oasis with a river acting as a wildlife corridor

This success encouraged the Trust to take further unproductive areas out of arable farming – field corners of heavy, poorly drained soils - and again wildlife soon moved in. Great crested newts and even a nationally rare stonewort colonised newly created ponds. It demonstrated that, given an opportunity, wildlife would quickly move in, even on land that had been cultivated and sprayed for decades.

In 2016 the Trust had the opportunity to purchase 70 acres of riverside meadows alongside Grove Farm. Thanks to the support of members, a major donation and a legacy gift we were able to secure these fields a mix of dry grassland and former river meadows. The new acquisition triggered a change in name for the reserve – from Grove Farm to the Black Bourn Valley to reflect the importance of the river that flowed

through the newly extended reserve. It also led to a fresh look at how the entire farm was managed.

Wildlife conservation is ever-evolving as new evidence and information comes to light. The concept of ‘re-wilding’ has gained momentum in recent years fuelled by current research, high profile advocates such as George Monbiot and real-life examples such as the Oostvardersplassen in Holland or the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. These examples use naturalistic grazing as the principal management tool. On the Knepp Estate this approach is applied across 3,500 acres and has resulted in thriving populations of nightingale and turtle dove - species which are in calamitous decline in the wider countryside. In only a few years Knepp has become the purple

Wildlife conservation is ever evolving – as new information comes to light emperor capital of England as these remarkable butterflies have rapidly colonised sallow scrub that regenerated on former agricultural fields. And these are just a few of the species of plant and animal that now thrive in this new landscape. Knepp is still farmed, with deer, pigs and cattle grazing the land and maintaining a complex mosaic of habitats.

OUR OWN REWILDING MODEL The success of these areas in attracting wildlife reflects the Trust’s own smaller scale experience with set aside areas on Black Bourn and larger field scale trials at Arger Fen & Spouse’s Vale. The Black Bourn Valley reserve has all the ingredients to create a wildlife oasis with a river acting as a wildlife corridor, speciesrich grassland, ancient hedges, network of ponds and patches of woodland. These areas provide a core from which nature can spread out across the whole farm.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

ALAMY

Originally left as a legacy gift in 1995 by Laura Cooper who worked on the farm as a Land Girl in the 1940s, the reserve has since grown out of all recognition. Steve Aylward explains how the changes have triggered a complete re-evaluation of how the land will be managed for wildlife and visitors.

19

LIVING LANDSCAPES enhance further stretches of the river.

In 2017 another 68 acres came up for sale including wet woodland and fen. This purchase was a priority as it would create one large contiguous landholding along the Black Bourn and enable new opportunities for wetland enhancement.

Thanks to recent generous legacy bequests kept aside for this purpose, the Trust was able to act quickly and secure this further extension to the reserve.

Bee orchids are quick to colonise ex-arable land.

STEVE AYLWARD

Some changes have already been made on the reserve. With the support of the Environment Agency and the Norton Combined Charities, which owns two riverside meadows, the former course of the river has been restored and reconnected to the main river channel. This allows winter floodwater to flow through both water courses and spill over onto meadows drawing in winter flocks of teal, mallard, gadwall and shoveller. Plans are afoot to

VISIT

Postcode: IP31 3SQ

TOM MARSHALL

THE CONCEPT OF REWILDING HAS GAINED MOMENTUM FUELLED BY HIGH PROFILE ADVOCATES SUCH AS GEORGE MONBIOT

BIGGER IS BETTER Research is demonstrating the value of larger areas of land being managed for wildlife - in general they support more habitats, more species and more viable populations. In today’s landscapes where many species struggle, areas such as the Black Bourn Valley can become biodiversity ‘hot spots’ where otherwise threatened species can thrive and rebuild their numbers. And by working in partnership with our neighbours we can create a landscape that is more hospitable for wildlife. Neighbours near the Black Bourn Valley, such as Stephen Honeywood, are already doing this and in a partnership with Jordans and the Wildlife Trusts 10% of his farm is managed for nature.

In 2018 we are considering a very different future for the Black Bourn Valley reserve. The arable fields will be left fallow

and changes will be monitored to see what plants emerge and what species colonise. The riverside meadows will continue to be cattle grazed but by reducing the intensity of grazing a more complex and wildlife rich landscape will emerge.

Most conservation projects involve the restoration of specific habitats, such as heaths and fens, where outcomes are predictable. This will be quite different.

It is likely to be a fascinating journey of change, no doubt full of wildlife surprises.

Alongside the changes we will develop new paths and trails to enable visitors to explore the extended reserve. Visit and come along for the ride! n

It is likely to be a fascinating journey of change, no doubt full of wildlife surprises

STEVE AYLWARD is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Head of Property & Projects and has a passion for the Suffolk landscape and its wildlife.

TOM MARSHALL

BLACK BOURN

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

Flutter by

STEVE AYLWARD

Whether it is the exquisite purple emperor, silver studded blues, the green hairstreak or the more common peacock, butterflies are some of our most beautiful species.

Steve Aylward explains where to go this summer on a Suffolk butterfly safari.

C

ompared to some counties, Suffolk’s butterfly list looks a little impoverished. We don’t have the rich downland butterfly habitats of some southern counties, or the hill and moorland habitats that support several habitatspecific species. But look closely and you can find our 35 naturally occurring species and if really lucky, maybe the odd continental visitor making the short hop across the North Sea. Nationally, butterflies are having a hard time, numbers are dropping and ranges contracting. Butterflies are particularly struggling in the wider countryside and most notably in intensively managed farmland landscapes. However, it is not all doom and gloom and where steps are being taken to support and conserve butterflies, populations are recovering or even growing and there are still plenty of places to enjoy these wonderful creatures.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

21

STEVE AYLWARD

SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

WOODLANDS In recent years, Suffolk’s woodland butterflies have been through quite a renaissance with the recolonization of many old woods by silver-washed fritillaries and in some cases even purple emperors.

This remarkable turn of events would have been thought an impossibility 10 years ago but when you consider the fact that many woods are now actively well managed it is less of a surprise. Roaming butterflies looking to expand their range have found woodlands that are no longer neglected and too shady and instead are ripe for recolonisation.

In recent years, Suffolk’s woodland butterflies have been through quite a renaissance With its wide flowery rides and glades, Bradfield Woods is by far the county's premier woodland butterfly reserve. From March through to October, butterflies are almost guaranteed on bright sunny days. The highlight however is mid-summer when silver-washed fritillaries are on the wing, sometimes in extraordinary numbers.

Bonny Wood is another great woodland for butterflies where the summer highlight is the often-elusive purple emperor. A bit of luck is still required to see one, but they are undoubtedly the singular most impressive British butterfly and thrilling to see at first hand.

For sheer butterfly abundance, it is difficult to beat Dunwich Forest. Common species occur in numbers unlike anywhere else in the county but this is also one of the best places to see white-letter hairstreak, purple hairstreak and white admiral butterflies.

ABOVE LEFT

Look out for the punk-rocker hues of the green hairstreak.

ABOVE Red admiral feeding on purple losestrife.

ABOVE RIGHT:

Grayling blend in seemlessly to their surroundings.

WHERE TO SEE

HEATHS Heathland butterflies are also making a comeback following over 20 years of concerted habitat restoration effort. Heathland specialists such as grayling and silver -studded blues are doing particularly well, with the latter at several re-introduction sites. Heaths are also great places to see more generalist species like skippers, small tortoiseshells and peacocks, especially in late summer when the heather is in bloom.

Silver-studded blues were reintroduced to Blaxhall Common several years ago and the new colony is thriving. Best time to visit is mid-June to mid-July when numbers are at their peak.

22 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

The sheer size of the Sutton & Hollesley Commons heathland complex makes it a great butterfly site.

There are several colonies of silver-studded blues and grayling are widespread as well as many other more common species. Being close to the coast, the migrant clouded yellow is also a regular sight.

The diversity of habitats makes Knettishall Heath a brilliant butterfly reserve. Grassland species like small heath and the skippers are abundant, while the woodland edges and rides are good for white admiral butterflies. Buckthorn, the larval foodplant for the brimstone is quite common, so it is always a good place to find this fabulous butterfly.

BUTTERFLIES

LOCATION MAPS FOR ALL THE RESERVES ARE ON OUR WEBSITE Silverstudded blue.

suffolkwildlife trust.org

Carlton Marshes WALL BROWN

Spot this distinctive butterfly in May or late August/ September when they have a second brood.

DID YOU KNOW?

WETLANDS There are few specialist wetland butterflies in Suffolk but anywhere where cuckoo flower or ladies smock, as it is also known, grows is usually a good place to find orange tip butterflies. The distinctive males with their orange wing tips are much easier to spot than the plainer females but if you can find a resting butterfly, look out for the beautifully marked mottled green underwing of both the male and female of this species.

Carlton Marshes is a reserve for many common species that often occur in high numbers, but the highlight has to be the wall brown. This distinctive and handsome butterfly has suffered a massive decline in

STEVE AYLWARD is Head of Property & Projects at Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Butterflies ‘taste’ through sensors on their feet, not with their mouthparts.

l The fastest butterflies are the skippers that can fly at up to 37mph.

A GROUP OF BUTTERFLIES IS CALLED A

l

The scales on a butterfly’s wings are either red, yellow, black or white. Other colours are created simply by the way light reflects off the surface of the scales.

l They ‘smell’ with their antennae.

FLUTTER Suffolk and Carlton Marshes is one of the few places left where this species can reliably be found either in May or late August/September when they have a second brood.

For a small reserve, Newbourne Springs packs quite a punch in terms of its butterflies. Orange tips are frequent in spring but throughout the year there is a succession of species including common blue and brown argus. The highlight however is not a species associated with wetlands but scrubby heathlands, the green hairstreak. Always difficult to spot, the reward is a butterfly that has the most impossibly difficult to describe green wings – an absolute stunner! n

Bonny Wood

Hollesley Commons

Your garden!

Black Bourn

This butterfly is drawn to shiny things like this car wing mirror and it will use its antennae to probe the surface.

Being close to the coast, the distinctive clouded yellow is a regular sight.

Widespread throughout Suffolk, caterpillars can be found feeding on stinging nettles.

As the name suggests, gatekeepers might be found in clumps of flowers growing by gates and hedgerows.

PURPLE EMPEROR

CLOUDED YELLOW

PEACOCK

GATEKEEPER

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 23

PHOTOS: STEVE AYLWARD

For sheer butterfly abundance, it is difficult to beat Dunwich Forest

l

WILDLIFE & PEOPLE

A WILD

FUTURE After 30 years at Suffolk Wildlife Trust and almost 20 as Head of Conservation, Dorothy Casey is stepping down. She tells Matt Gaw about the changes she has overseen and sets out her vision for an even wilder future.

24 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

FORWARD-THINKING The legacy of wildness that Dorothy leaves across 50 reserves and many thousand more acres of connecting land, owes much to this forward-thinking perspective. A desire to constantly re-evaluate the way the Trust manages wild spaces for nature and for people.

While much of the language of conservation can often appear rooted in history – full of talk of restoration and traditional management techniques – this is often because our native flora and fauna have developed alongside such ancient methods. And, as Dorothy explains, the focus of modern conservation in Suffolk is now about being progressive and making the most of new ideas.

Natural processes, rather than being tightly marshalled, have been given space to rewild “When we talk about conservation, it’s tempting to think about what Suffolk would have been like before the wars, before the intensification of agriculture”, Dorothy says, “You know, I think it would have been a beautiful place. But it’s really important we realise that we can’t go back to that, everything has moved on so much. For the Trust the future of the Suffolk landscape is

linked much more to what we have been doing on reserves at Black Bourn Valley and Arger Fen, where we are letting nature take the lead.”

While traditional reserve management techniques, both here and across the UK, have typically attempted to mimic the way semi-natural habitat was once used or managed, under Dorothy’s tenure the Trust has been challenging the orthodox. There has been a realisation that a highly prescriptive approach that focusses on certain desirable plant communities or the restoration of an anthropogenic habitat, can mean something very important is lost. Diversity, the niches and nooks that form a vital part of ecosystems can disappear and nature – the wildlife that we cherish and want to protect – falls through the cracks.

As a result, in Suffolk, it is nature, not the human, that is now being put centre stage when it comes to healing and restoring the landscape. Natural processes, rather than being tightly marshalled, have quite simply been given space to “rewild”.

REWILDING SUFFOLK The concept of rewilding has in recent years certainly captured the imagination of both the conservation community and the public.

The re-introduction of beaver in Scotland and the West Country, the debate around the possibility of seeing wolves and lynx return to the UK have caused both excitement and debate. Such ambitions, controversial or not, may be feasible in the uplands of Scotland, where it is possible to secure huge swathes of land. But in lowland Suffolk, with its limited space and high land prices, rewilding is much more about enabling natural processes to drive conservation efforts.

Dorothy explains, “The key is the patchiness, having interconnected and varied habitat. It’s about having scrub, wooded areas, open areas and ponds. Intervention can

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 25

ALAMY

S

itting in a meeting room at the back of Brooke House, Dorothy is slightly restless. More at home wandering on a reserve or talking to landowners than in an office. I also get the feeling that she would rather talk about the future than the past. Her focus is on what she can still achieve while at the Trust and her plans to return to botany and further ecological study.

Management and strategy once again swapped for Suffolk’s woods and meadows.

WILDLIFE & PEOPLE

DAVID KJAER

says her work with farmers has been a highlight of her career.

FROM ARABLE TO WILDNESS This new, wilder approach to reserve management also fits with the kind of land the Trust is looking to purchase. While previously land with little existing wildlife value was passed over, fields that flank existing reserves are now seen as opportunities, not only to buffer important marshes, meadows and woods, but to rewild.

26 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

At Black Bourn, Arger Fen, Lackford Lakes and Carlton Marshes, the Trust has moved quickly to secure land and enable natural processes to reclaim and restore it for wildlife.

“Although rewilding feels right, almost instinctive, I have to say that I would never have predicted 20 years ago that the Trust would be looking to buy ex-arable land.

“I think it’s a really good way to go because we have a got a blank canvas and we are doing something very significant in terms of the numbers of species that land can support. If you look at what we’ll be doing at Peto’s (part of the new land at Carlton Marshes), a field will be allowed to revert to wetland. Of course, it won’t replace the marsh that was there before it was ploughed up, but it will create amazing habitat.”

She smiles at the thought. “We’ve been looking at that land for so long, thinking ‘If only’, and now huge numbers of birds will soon move in. We don’t know when, but we know they will.”

While the potential for wildlife is huge, its success also involves the continuation of the Trust’s work with farming communities: encouraging clusters of farms in a given location to understand how their combined efforts can bring huge benefits for a whole host of flora and fauna. Dorothy says her work with farmers,

ANDY HAY RSPB IMAGES

MIDDLE Dorothy

be kept to a minimum and is only really required to keep the landscape as varied as the species need it to be.”

The management of the land, what Dorothy calls “managing wildness”, becomes about stopping the land reverting to uniform woodland (a wood of the same age, with little variation) which is not so good for wildlife. “It’s important to keep the stages of natural succession, so open areas connected to scrub and woodland.”

Such an approach is already bearing fruit on some of the Trust’s reserves. “We have seen with our work at Black Bourn Valley that using rewilding as a conservation framework has been really successful,” Dorothy says. “When we have taken fields out of intensive farming, the plant community will change. It will go through stages of succession, from pioneering vegetation before it moves without any intervention into scrub.

“In a relatively short period we have already got one narrow field where the scrub is really moving in and it is just so rich in species compared to the rest of the farm.”

PIXABAY

ABOVE At Black Bourn, the Trust has moved quickly to buy land and enable natural processes to reclaim and restore it for wildlife.

In Suffolk, it is nature, not the human that is now being put centre stage when it comes to healing and restoring the landscape

especially those who may have been initially hesitant to getting involved with conservation, has been a highlight of her career.

“We want to see more approaches like those we have seen at Black Bourn and by working with groups of farmers we can get away from having fragmented habitat, which can lead to localised extinctions. Having bigger, connected landscapes is so important for species and the way they move. It really is the future of conservation.”

NEIL GEACH

STEVE AYLWARD

CHALLENGES Yet, despite all the positives – the change in fortunes for barn owls, marsh harriers, dormice, water vole and otter – Dorothy admits that working on the front-line of conservation is probably not for the faint-hearted.

“The biggest challenge of my career? That’s easy”, she says, “I think keeping your spirit up in the face of adversity.”

The last few decades have certainly not seen much good news for UK’s wildlife: a national decline in 60% of species, with one in ten of all species assessed under the State of Nature Report in threat of disappearing from these shores. As Aldo Leopold, the great American environmentalist said, the “penalty for an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.”

ABOVE Dorothy at Captain's Wood.

BELOW LEFT The

re-introduction of beaver in Scotland and the West Country, has caused both excitement and debate.

MATT GAW is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Media Manager and Editor of Suffolk Wildlife. He is a freelance writer.

I know in my lifetime I have done my best. I think everyone here believes wildness will find a way But, just as Dorothy is keen that the whole Trust get recognition for the successes under her watch, she is also adamant that it has been her team that has continued to inspire and motivate her.

“We are just so fortunate at Suffolk Wildlife Trust to have a lot of young people coming through whose backgrounds might not be in conservation. They are fresh eyes. They are not coming in with preconceived ideas about what conservation is or should be. They are looking, understanding and thinking about what is best for each piece of land.”

She pauses, “We have to keep going, we have to keep working to protect wild spaces and inspire others. I know in my lifetime I will do and have done what I can. I know I have done my best and it’s something I am immensely proud of.

“I think everyone here believes wildness will find a way.” n

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 27

UK NEWS

Wildlife Trusts call for a farming rethink New report proposes a better way to spend public money on agriculture after the UK leaves the EU.

L

eaving the EU is a rare chance to reverse the fortunes of the wildlife, soil, water and habitats which post-war agricultural policy has depleted.

That’s the message in a new report by The Wildlife Trusts on the future of farming and land management in England. What Next for Farming? suggests that once the UK leaves the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, payments to farmers should be linked to a wide range of benefits, for people and wildlife.

“At the moment, farmers can sell the food they grow through the market. But

they can’t sell a whole range of benefits or services that society needs,” says Ellie Brodie, Senior Policy Manager at The Wildlife Trusts.

“Our report proposes three public funds. The money would be allocated through local environment plans designed to achieve nature’s recovery.

These plans would be allocated through local nature recovery plans – identifying environmental needs using local data and consultation with local people.

Linking farmers together and targeting investment where it is most needed will restore habitats and join them up.”

The report suggests the current UK agriculture budget of £3bn could fund the new system. We currently spend £144bn on health, £87bn on education and £37bn on defence.

A study of the River Aire catchment shows how this idea could work. A Yorkshire Wildlife Trust report concludes that for a similar cost to today’s system, public benefits would massively increase.

For the first time, all good quality habitat in the area would be well managed and expanded. £14m would be invested in natural flood management over 10 years.

FIND OUT MORE wildlifetrusts.org/farming

The report shows how we can meet the needs of both nature and farming.

DON SUTHERLAND

EIGHT THINGS FARMERS SHOULD BE PAID TO PROVIDE

1

WESTMINSTER SEEMS TO AGREE!

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has also announced that the Government intends to change the current approach to farm payments. Whilst we welcome the proposals, one big risk remains. Vast areas of farmland currently receive ‘basic payments’, which require positive management of wildlife habitats, such as hedgerows. When these payments end, new regulations will be required to replace them.

28 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

More, bigger & better natural habitats

Using ecological mapping to coordinate farmers’ land management

2

Thriving wildlife

Pioneering farmers have shown you can farm profitably & restore wildlife

3

Abundant pollinators

Insects are a vital link in our food chain.

Joint action can bring them back

4

Healthy soils

Farmers should be paid for conserving & improving soil

5

Clean water

6

Clean air & climate change mitigation

Reducing fertiliser pollution & run-off will clean rivers & lower water bills

Restoring dried-out peatlands locks up atmospheric carbon

7

Flood Risk Management

8

Healthy people

Changing livestock & land use on hills slows down water runoff, reducing floods

Better access to the countryside means better physical & mental health

Herring gulls can live to be 27 or more.

ALDERNEY WT

PRINCE HARRY VISITS BROCKHOLES

LONG-RANGE SECRETS OF ALDERNEY’S GULLS

HRH Prince Harry has been to Lancashire Wildlife Trust’s flagship nature reserve to support a project encouraging young people to get into the wild. He visited Viking Wood at Brockholes to meet staff and participants taking part in deadhedging, bushcraft and mindfulness.

“Prince Harry is on a mission for mental health issues to be destigimatised,” said Lancashire Wildlife Trust CEO Anne Selby. “The biggest prize is to normalise this sort of approach so it becomes part of the system nationally.”

The project, MyPlace, is pioneering nature as a holistic therapy, building on research that contact with nature improves mental and physical health. The dynamic partnership between Lancashire Wildlife Trust and the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust is funded by the European Social Fund and National Lottery.

Harry sees nature as a valuable aid to good mental health.

Come into my parlour: Sitticus floricola

ALEX HYDE/NATUREPL.COM

LANCS WTS

The Prince chats with marshmallow roasters.

Long-term research by Alderney Wildlife Trust has revealed the extraordinary lives of gulls. A lesser black-backed gull ringed as a chick was spotted in Castellon, Spain and later in Switzerland. And a herring gull ringed in 1991 is still alive at 27.

SPIDERS ENDORSE LIVING LANDSCAPE A survey in the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s Delamere Living Landscape has revealed two rare spiders: the Sitticus floricola jumping spider (found at two sites) and the money spider Glyphesis cottonae (four sites). Both species live on wet moss.

KODIAK HIGH SCHOO L

NI’S MARINE LITTER CONTEST

ULSTER WILDLIFE

Children across Northern Ireland are turning washed-up plastic into art. The competition, organised by Ulster Wildlife and the Northern Ireland Science Festival, is raising awareness of the growing menace of marine plastic and its impact on sea life.

Primary and secondary school pupils collected the rubbish from their local beach. The winning pieces were displayed at events around the coast.

INSET PICTURE:

An example of marine litter art.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 29

LIVING LANDSCAPES

Join the linear revol Where there are people, there are lines: fences, walls, lawns, hedges. To wildlife, these lines can be barriers or highways. It just depends how you look at them, says Hugh Warwick.

Hugh Warwick is an ecologist, author and hedgehog lover. His latest book is Linescapes.

W

e love lines, yet we have come to let them govern us. Think about our landscapes and you cannot escape the impact of the lines we have built. Hedges, ditches, dykes, walls, canals, railways, roads and power lines all mark out the space we share with wildlife. Some of the lines are wildlife corridors and habitats of the highest order. Others destroy and fragment.

When I started researching my latest book, Linescapes, I was sure it would be

simple. There would be an easy segregation of lines into good and bad. But very quickly it became apparent that there were hedges that were living up to none of their potential and roads along which wildlife flourished. For example, in Lincolnshire, a volunteer search for wildflowers led to the designation of 159 new Local Wildlife Sites on verges along 155 miles of road.Â

BIRDS

PAUL HARRIS/202VISION

use trees as stepping stones

HEDGEHOGS use gaps in fences to forage

BEES

move from flower to flower

How many lines could your garden have connecting it to other green places?

30 SUFFOLK WILDLIFE

Our gardens are part of a Living Landscape

ution To fix our fragmented land requires a massive change at the highest levels; we need to address environmental, agricultural and transport policy to connect our landscapes for wildlife. Taking an active, landscape-scale approach to conservation and working with partners across the board can bring about huge changes: we can truly have living landscapes once again.

And we can take action ourselves.

Look to the patches you can influence; for many of us that is our gardens. The best way to fit them into a Living Landscape is

by making connections, at different levels.

The most obvious is to supply nectar rich plants to attract insects – which in turn feed birds, bats and amphibians.

Remember the lines that link need not be straightforward, they can be pearls along a necklace.

Make sure you have spaces wild enough in your garden to let insects thrive. Of course, there is far more out there than just things that fly, and we need to make provision for them as well.

And that is where a little engineering can be very useful – a hole in the fence, just

13cm square, to let the terrestrial beasts join the fun. This is the essence of the Hedgehog Street campaign. It’s hugely important, as a foraging hedgehog can cover more than a mile per night.

Making lines work for us and for wildlife is a great way to start redressing some of the damage we have inadvertently caused. Why not begin with your garden or workplace, looking at how you can open up highways or create stop-off points for your local plants and animals?

And if you can get your neighbours involved, better still. n

Frogs will travel several hundred yards if your pond smells good.

How you can help

Plug your garden into the linescape

We tend to think our gardens stop at the fence, but wildlife doesn’t.

LOG PILES Encourage invertebrates to colonise in the damp, dark corners.

PONDS Attract highly mobile dragonflies and draw in frogs, newts and toads to spawn.

HEDGEHOG HOLES Give our prickly friends the right to roam through your garden.

MESSY CORNERS Long grasses and wildflowers give insects a home, attracting bats.

WINDOW BOXES Even if you don’t have a garden, a vibrant window box is a great wildlife habitat.

SUFFOLK WILDLIFE 31

June

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Join the UK’s month-long nature challenge! Make time for nature, explore Suffolk’s wild places and share your love of wildlife with us this June